Exploring 18th-Century Fashion, Garment by Garment

Did you know that artists used pig bladders to carry paint before tubes were invented, that the gold leaf used to gild paintings and manuscripts was made by pounding a coin into thin sheets, or that 18th-century fashion designers used dolls to transmit the latest styles across national borders?

If you’ve ever wondered how the works of art you see at the museum were made, come to an Artist-at-Work Demonstration and get the inside scoop. This demo by costume designer Maxwell Barr explored fashion in the prosperous world of 18th-century Paris and demonstrated the extraordinary craftsmanship and virtuosity of the textiles and designs used to create period clothing garments seen in our recent exhibition Paris: Life and Luxury.

For our next demos, learn watercolor how-to’s with artist Richard Houston every Sunday in September, and watch how pigment and wax come together to make encaustic beginning October 8. The schedule is here.